Star Trek: Selling the right feeling at the right time

The latest Star Trek movie reminds us that timing is everything when releasing your products.

The latest Star Trek movie reminds us that timing is everything when releasing your products.

The latest Star Trek movie managed to pull the franchise out from the rating garbage bin and out of geekdom, firmly into the realms of sexy, popular and cool.

It managed to gain 74% on movie review site Rotten Tomatoes, was the thirteenth highest grossing file of 2009, and was even nominated for four Oscars at the 82nd Academy Awards, in the end winning one for best makeup. What went right?

Besides the high production values and story telling that gave a breath of fresh air, the timing was impeccable. Its was released in the midst of one of the greatest financial crisis this generation and since the Great Depression back in the 20s and 30s, and offered a theme of hope, a simple but effective theme of good triumphing over evil. At that point in time, that was all people were looking for.

The USS Enterprise, re-imagined.

Although it was not a deliberate decision to release it during a time of economic depression, it did help to propel the film upwards.

Even if it isn’t always possible to time release of your products in such a manner, the success of Star Trek reminds us that timing is everything. If you market a product too far ahead of its time, as those of interactive TV found to their dismay when it was initially released in the early 90s, then there will be little uptake. Release it too late, then your competitors have already made money and moved on, leaving only a dying market niche left to conquer.